


Why She Won't Say it Back

by ChocolateRulez



Category: Inu x Boku Secret Service | The Dog and Me Secret Service (Anime)
Genre: AU, Angst, Dandere, F/M, Fluff, Friendship/Love, I LOVE MY BABES, Love, MY BABIES, Tsundere, Unrequited Love, kuudere, lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-28 00:40:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6306970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocolateRulez/pseuds/ChocolateRulez
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karuta always understands when Watanuki confesses to her. She just can't will herself to say it back, even when she would mean it with all her heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Why She Won't Say it Back

_"I love you,"_ he confesses, his face beginning to redden as he puffs out his cheeks. As a delinquent, he doesn't seem to hold back his feelings for her.

She pretends not to understand what he means, and she tilts her head to the side as innocent as possible. "Of course, I love you too. That's what friends do."

His expression had brightened for a brief moment before he perceives the second part of the sentence and his countenance slowly deflates. 

She gulps, and it's as if all of the guilt had accumulated into her throat and she struggles to breathe.

At least it won't happen again. He would have learned the first time.

*************

Yet he says it again. Just during a different time period. 

Time continues to elapse when he repeats it. 

They're all different. Sometimes he's shouting at the top of his lungs his "unrequited" love for her, and at other times they're both sitting alone when he mentions it nonchalantly.

He is so persistent, which is one of the "delinquent" features he possesses. 

Even though she fabricates a facade in which the only things she's interested in is food and she always maintains the same blank-faced reaction, it never seems to sway him.

Why can't he apprehend that every time he mutters those three words, her heart stops? Not with surprise, but with the inundation of fear that if she would accept it, he would stop.

He was there when she was being publicly shunned. She clearly remembered the day when he had silently vowed as he inhaled the sweet scent of her strawberry-colored hair that he will protect her for as long as he lives. 

She takes another munch of her pocky stick, holding it out for him. His cheeks once again redden as he leans over and catches the rest of the pocky stick with his tongue. 

She wills down the urge to lean over and lick the side of his mouth, which had excess crumbs of the pocky stick, and instead leans back into her cushioned seat.

Yet he continues to lean over, until his body is splayed over the table and his mouth is right beside her ear.

"I still love you," he begins, and he won't even let her squash his feelings once again with reciprocated feelings of friendship. "I vowed years ago that I would always be by your side, and I still do." 

She inhales sharply, trying to keep her hands in her lap as she tries to stop them from shaking. "Even if you think you're a disgusting creature whenever you transform, I love every single part of you. No matter which form you're in."

Her eyes tear up. Her little raccoon seems to be the one who has steeled himself up, and suddenly she's the tiny one as she sniffles softly.

Nonetheless, he catches it. "I'll protect you. Against the bullies. Against the world. Against everything. That's what I've been training for. To never see you cry again, Karuta." 

That seems to be what unravels her rigid facade, and she drops the rest of the pocky sticks as she finally releases all of the tears she held back. 

She dives into his arms, hearing the thud of the box as it collapses onto the floor, the onomatopoeia the only thing that resounds in her ears until she feels Banri's arms slowly enwrap her. 

Her tears seem to be overflowing as she buries her face into his shoulder and whispers the three words he had been waiting years to hear out of her lips. 

"I love you." 

 


End file.
